


just alright.

by MitsuhaMiyamizi



Category: The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Wicked Powers Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Carstairs family, Flower Crowns, I'm Bad At Tagging, a day in the park, big brother kit, enjoy, fey kit, just me writing about the weather for longer than necessary, kit enjoys life in devon with his family, kit is a little bean, kit is part fey, life in devon, mina is a littler bean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:08:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24981328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MitsuhaMiyamizi/pseuds/MitsuhaMiyamizi
Summary: Kit spends a day at the park with his family in Devon.
Relationships: Jem Carstairs/Tessa Gray
Comments: 6
Kudos: 36





	just alright.

**Author's Note:**

> read the fic on tumblr: https://mitsuhamiyamizi.tumblr.com/post/622269798875807744/just-alright-may-2020
> 
> hope you enjoy! 
> 
> this is based off a headcanon by @bookish-mind on tumblr.

It’s hardly ever bright in Devon. 

It’s much unlike all the places he’s ever lived, where the weather was always predictable. And painful. He remembers being in Texas for a short while, and he still gets nightmares about the summers— all blinding sky and heavy air and sunlight that scorched your back like hellfire, if you chose to go outside. 

But Devon is different. It’s hardly ever bright, which really would be nice if it didn’t rain every other hour, but he supposes that’s the charm of it all— the melodramatic feeling of looking out solemnly through the window, watching the water drip down the glass, running your hand over it as if you’re in a music video. 

But today, it’s one of the rare sunny days. Well, as sunny as it can get. 

There’s probably one square inch of sun peeking out, grand total. 

It’s nearing four o’clock. They’ve been at the park for hours, and the picnic blanket is already folded up and inside the basket. He goes over to Tessa, where she’s sitting on the grass by the picnic basket. She puts down the book for a moment. It’s her second today, this one’s _The Bell Jar_ by Sylvia Plath. 

“Saw that movie,” He says suddenly. 

Tessa looks confused for a moment, but her face relaxes as she looks down at the title. 

“Reading the book,” she replies. “It’s not bad, just a little odd is all.” 

“Wait until you get to the ending,” Kit says. “That’s when—” 

Tessa quickly covers her ears. “No, don’t tell me!” 

He laughs, and Tessa drops her hands from her ears, a warning look in her eyes. “Don’t do that to me again.” 

“I would never,” he says, grinning. 

He picks up the other book, _The Picture of Dorian Gray_. Tessa ruffles his hair and he moves away to duck under the shade of the nearby Sycamore. He leans his head back against the tree. It’s high time for a bit of rest, seeing as the first half of the day consisted solely of vaguely concerning training methods. 

He’s never understood why Shadowhunters train in the stupid ways they train. He can only describe it as trial and error: you do something dangerous, and if you break a bone or lose a limb, it’s a sign that something went wrong, so you fix your body part and keep doing the same dangerous thing until you’ve either mastered doing it or lost enough limbs to the point of no return. 

So, naturally. Quite naturally. He’s tired. 

He looks off into the distance, where Jem is running around with Mina, collecting flowers to make flower crowns with. He touches the one on his head, running his fingers over the waxy petals. Everyone’s got one on, Mina included, and it slips over her eyes as she runs. He gives a soft smile and opens _Dorian Gray._

Tessa had insisted he read it; something about the name Fairchild and how deeply fascinating the characters were. He’s started reading the first few pages when he hears a giggle from behind him. He closes the book slowly. Another giggle. 

A second flower crown sits on his head now, and Jem’s beaming with what Kit can only imagine is fatherly pride as Mina runs out from behind him, still laughing. 

“You look like a princess!” she says. 

She’s so small, so sweet. 

Kit puffs out his chest and straightens his back. “You really think so, Mina?” 

She nods earnestly. “Like a garden princess.” 

He gasps. “A whole garden, just for me?” 

Mina shakes her head. “Not one. All the gardens!” 

She pauses for a moment, frowning at the crowns. “It’s crooked.” 

“It’s perfect,” Kit says, and suddenly, Mina runs up to him and wraps her tiny arms around his head. “You’re my favorite princess,” she whispers. 

His heart melts. “Thank you,” he whispers back, and just as suddenly, she releases him and goes back to make the next crown. Jem’s still smiling at him. 

He’s starting to doze off as she comes by with the next one. He pretends to be asleep as a not-particularly-stealthy giggling toddler places the third on his head. And it goes on. The fourth, fifth, sixth. Jem comes with the seventh. He loves Mina too much to take them off, to tell her not to put any more on his head. 

And besides, they’re doing no harm. 

As they’re making the eighth, the sun begins to set. The once-grey sky turns a more red and pink version of grey. _The joys of pollution_ , Kit thinks, as the clouds move by and wash the colors out even more. 

A bird flies overhead, and a single Sycamore leaf falls to the ground by his knee. And when Mina comes by giggling and places another flower crown on his head, he lets the world wait for a moment. 

For a moment, he isn’t Johnny Rook’s boy or the Lost Herondale. For a moment, the world stops hurting, and he isn’t a naïve boy who runs away from heartbreak. 

For a moment, he’s just Kit as Mina sees him. He’s strong, and funny, and loving, and a garden princess if he needs to be. If she wants him to be. And maybe he’s willing to admit that there’s something inside of him that mends. A little drop of water in that void of a well. 

Maybe the sky has finally lifted, and the thought of the future is no longer as crushing.

And he knows that Mina loves him. 

Unconditionally, as siblings often do. 

He wouldn’t have known before this. 

Mina, who would reach her tiny hand out and wrap her little fingers around Kit’s before she could speak. Who would follow him around the house when she first learned to walk, because he always had something planned. Who would sit and wait by the door when he cried with the door locked, and when it finally opened, would be bearing cookies and a face that made you forget all your sorrows. 

The sky is dark, and Tessa has closed her book and set it aside to hold Mina. Jem picks up the picnic basket, and Kit gets up off the grass and picks up the copy of Dorian Gray. 

He adjusts the flower crowns on his head, and as he approaches Tessa, Mina is set down. She comes running and crashes into his leg. He smiles and lifts her up, and Jem and Tessa share a smile. 

For a moment, everything is just alright. 

Not perfect. 

Just _alright_. The way things should have been. 

He adjusts the flower crowns again. 

And maybe it’s the faerie in his blood, but he finds them absolutely worthy of royalty. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank y’all so much for reading!! i hope you really enjoyed this, based off of @bookish-mind‘s oddly specific headcanon. i really wanted to write some family man kit, so here we go! this is completely unedited bs i just churned out, so. letting you know. tell me what you think <3


End file.
